Predation and prevention

[rsc]

So, we have these four strawberry beds. Two of them have new plants this year (not as many as there should be, probably owing to uncharacteristically sloppy planting technique on my part, but that's another story) and therefore will not be permitted to set fruit. but the other two have been "about to" give us lots of ripe strawberries for some time now. The weather didn't help, but the fact that we keep seeing almost-ripe strawberries but there not seeming to be many intact ripe ones, despite the presence of a semi-elaborate system of netting anchored to PVC-pipe frames, was disconcerting.

So yesterday, when I went to see what I could harvest (something like 8 berries, some of which probably could have used another day), I saw a catbird fluttering around in a distraught manner under the netting on the rear bed, and as I was getting ready to lift the frame to let it out (not that I cared about the welfare of the fucking bird, but I really didn't want a dead catbird in the strawberries) it flew out through the back of the frame.

Yep; there was a great gaping hole in the netting at that spot. Careful inspection revealed a bunch more holes of various sizes in both sets. I patched most of them by weaving pieces of string through the netting around them, but jwg opined that for repairing the large hole it might work better to make a patch out of some of our spare netting and sew it over the hole. This turned out to be slightly more difficult than he thought it would be (which means slightly easier than I thought it would be, but now it's been done, and I think I found and patched all the other holes, so we'll see. not sure whether that sound I heard while working on this was the birds laughing at us.

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

Birds laugh at us humans, but that's because
we can't fly.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

WEre those holes the result of human error in putting up the netting? Or were they made by nonhuman intention, like maybe rabbits, who will have no trouble at all chewing through string or shoving past it?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I suspect that they're mostly a result of natural wear and tear (especially the latter), given that the netting is at least 10 years old. I wouldn't be surprised if the process has been helped along by birds bumping into it in attempts to get through. All of which means that there will be more of them, and we should probably replace all of it.